Kat was hopeful that the weekend would be better than her week at school. The last thing she wanted to do was think about Lily. The worst part was that Kat couldn’t even work on her project over the weekend because her library card was taken away. No books meant no research. No research meant no helping Bob.
Kat was still in shock over how strict Principal Benbrook was about “The Rules.” One daddy long legs wasn’t the end of the world. In fact, Kat was beginning to think Bob was kind of cute. She had looked at dozens of up close pictures of daddy long legs yesterday and there didn’t seem to be any reason to be afraid of them. In comparison to a spider, they were nothing.
Kat had already found out that daddy long legs were not true spiders. They only had two eyes and didn’t even make webs. Bob wanted to be a spider, but wasn’t.
Just like Lily, Kat thought. She wants to be everybody’s favorite, but she’s not.
When Kat had gotten home from school on Friday, Kat knew she was going to be in big trouble. Thankfully, Dad worked long shifts on Fridays. Kat knew she had some time before he would have to talk with her. Dinner would be only her and Uncle Chad.
Dinner with Uncle Chad was always about protein and carbs.
“Can’t live your life on orange juice and pop-tarts,” he told Kat every morning.
Kat loved her uncle, but his training for the World’s Strongest Man Competition took over everything else. His strength was so great that Kat was too easy to lift. He was always looking for new challenges now to train.
Just last week, the new refrigerator had gone missing. Four coolers full of food sat on the kitchen table instead. Outside of the two bedroom apartment, Uncle Chad had strapped the empty refrigerator to his back and was running laps around the community pool. He looked like a mutant turtle.
Saturday morning came quicker than Kat would have liked it to. Finally she did not have the spider nightmare. Instead, she dreamt that she was back in Kentucky with her mother. They were out in the garden talking all about “Bobs.” She wished she could have stretched the dream on for hours. It was nice to have a mother again.
Kat slowly threw the covers off of her bed and sat up in bed. She scanned around the room. No Puff in sight. She smiled again. This looked like a good morning.
Kat twisted her body and put her feet down on the floor. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep.
“Things will get better,” she said out loud. “Today will be a good day. No spiders. No Lily. No -”
Claws streaked out from under the bed and caught onto Kat’s foot.
“Ow!”
Puff pulled a sneak attack. There was no way she would be hit with a pillow this morning. She was now ‘The Under the Bed Monster.’ Everyone should live in terror of what lives under the bed. Especially if that thing is a four month old kitten with claws as sharp as a hibachi chef’s knives.
Princess Puffball pulled back her paws and waited for another strike. Kat pulled her feet back up into the bed and made a plan of attack. It had two very key parts. Step one: jump. Step two: run. Kat made it out the door and into the kitchen in four seconds flat.
“Wow, where’s the fire?” her father said from the kitchen table. Uncle Chad and her father were eating breakfast together this morning. This was a rare event to see, the brothers side by side. Dad was working more and Uncle Chad was always training. Kat had forgotten that all three of them actually lived in the same house together.
Kat heard the padding of little feet behind her trotting into the kitchen. Princess Puffball rubbed up against Uncle Chad’s leg and mewed softly.
“Oh,” Kat’s father said with a tired smile.
Kat looked at her father. He had been working so many extra hours at work that she now saw the wear and tear. Her uncle on the other hand was like the Energizer Bunny. He was twice the width of Kat’s father, even though they both stood six feet tall. Kat’s mother always said that she had married the brains. Perhaps someone would marry Chad for his muscles.
“I got a phone call yesterday,” Kat’s dad said seriously. Kat bit her lip and looked at the floor. She had never been in trouble at school before. Lily was going to ruin everything.
“Well?” her father prodded.
“It was Lily,” Kat said. Her eyes were stinging. She knew the tears would start soon.
Kat’s father put down his spoon and looked more directly at her.
“I heard you talked back to the principal,” he said.
Uncle Chad laughed and egg flew out of his mouth. Puff quickly ran to it and smelled it. She began to bat the egg around the floor like a play toy. At least now Kat had an excuse to keep her eyes down.
“Kathryn,” her father said. “What is going on? First this Lily girl and no talking back to the principal? He said that you told him his school rules were dumb.”
Kat squeezed the tears from her eyes and looked away from Princess Puffball.
“He was mad because we had a bug in our classroom.”
“And?” her father asked waiting for the end of the story.
Kat looked from him to Uncle Chad and back again. There were no more words.
“That’s all,” she said.
“Wait,” Uncle Chad said. “You mean you got in trouble because the rule is no bugs?”
Kat nodded her head. It seemed silly, but she was in trouble for a bug that came after here.
Both Uncle Chad and her father burst out into laughter. Kat jumped at the noise. There must have been something in their breakfasts to change them so quickly.
“Those are dumb rules!” Kat’s father agreed.
Kat smiled and her heart beat slowed. She wasn’t in trouble.
“It’s because we have to do this project in class,” Kat said taking a seat at the table. She had been standing this whole time and felt as if her knees would buckle under her if one more thing happened. “Lily and I have to do a project on Bob.”
“Bob?” Uncle Chad asked.
“He’s a daddy long legs we found in the sink,” Kat said. She remembered the feeling of being pushed against the sink. Bob’s legs had felt like claws sinking into her face at first. Now she knew it was all nervousness.
“And you’re working with the girl you don’t like?” her father asked.
“Yeah,” Kat said.
Uncle Chad began to laugh again. This time he didn’t even seem to be interested in the conversation. Finally, he looked at Kat and her father and explained.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was just thinking about this project I had to do with a guy in my school that I didn’t like. We were building three dimensional models of Egypt. He stomped all over the project.”
“Why?” Kat asked.
“Well, he got really mad because we had wrapped him in toilet paper like a mummy. When he got back to class, he started stepping all over my pyramids. It was like watching a mummy Godzilla destroy all of the Nile River.”
Uncle Chad grabbed his stomach and began to laugh again. If there was one thing that the Westwood brothers were good at it was story telling.
“So how did it all work out?” Kat asked.
“Your uncle had to rebuild the whole thing from scratch,” her father said remembering the whole thing.
“But we got extra credit for his costume,” Uncle Chad laughed again. “We must have covered him in at least four whole rolls!”
A timer went off in the kitchen and Uncle Chad stopped.
“Time for training,” he said. “And my new weight set is finally here!”
Uncle Chad put his dishes in the sink and left Kat and her father together. Even though the morning started on a sour note, Kat was glad to have some time with her dad. He was gone most nights until after dinnertime. Most nights Kat would fall asleep next to him on the couch. Being without Mom was hard on everyone.
“Is everything okay Kat?” he finally asked. “You never would have talked back to a principal before.”
Kat thought about what she should say. Would he understand that she felt responsible for her mother’s death? Would he understand that Bob was her only chance to make things right again?
“It wasn’t fair,” she said finally. “Bob didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m just worried about you Kathryn. Maybe I’m working too many hours. Maybe your uncle’s influence is too macho.”
“I’m fine Dad,” Kat said softly. “You’ve always told me to go after what I love. I know I don’t love Bob, but it’s not fair to kill him because he has more than two legs.”
“Hey now,” her dad countered. “You keep thinking that way and you’ll put me out of a job!”
Kat giggled. It was the business of bug squishing that would help her get a new home. Then again, Bob was different.
Bob was Bob.
Kat’s father stood up and put his dishes in the sink.
“I’m off to work,” he said giving Kat a kiss on the forehead. “Promise me you’ll be good.”
“I will,” Kat said.
Kat’s father padded down his pants to find his car keys. His pockets came up empty.
“That’s strange,” he said looking around the kitchen. “I could have sworn I had my keys. They were on the table this morning.”
He walked to the window and instantly ran out of the house.
Kat stared at the front door. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she turned towards the kitchen window. She stood and looked outside. What she saw sent her to the floor in a sea of giggles.
Uncle Chad was training outside with his new set of weights just like he promised. Too bad he had strapped her father’s extermination truck to his back and was hauling it down the street.
Kat’s father screamed after Uncle Chad and began to chase him. It only made Uncle Chad move faster. On his muscles alone, the car was beginning to pick up speed.
New weights, Kat thought. Sure.
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